Always Second Best
by cookieXdough
Summary: <html><head></head>First fanfic-Cally Rose comes from pureblood slytherin family but doesn't feel she belongs. Will she find a place with cousins and friends James, Fred and Louis? rated t for later years. James S. Potter x O.C.</html>
1. Chapter 1 Hogwarts Express

Hi all! So this is my first fanfic, been reading loads of HP ones recently so decided to try one of my own. This is about the lovely Calandra Elizabeth Rose, otherwise known as Cally, my favourite original character right now, also a character in a book I'm writing, so she is completely mine, as is her family, no stealing, unless you ask first :) Basically it follows her through her life at Hogwarts, where she becomes friends with James Potter, Fred Weasley and Louis Weasley. I've put those two in the same year as James as I'm gonna try making them like the maurauders minus Peter. James is like James, Fred is like Sirius and Louis is like Remus, I hope you notice the parallels between them at some point. Eventually will be Cally/James but there'll be other pairings along the way as to my fancy. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all rights go to Rowling.

1 The Hogwarts Express

As I walked with my parents towards the barrier that led to platform nine and three quarters, I spotted a family also with trunks, and an owl, heading in the same direction as us. They must be a wizard family I thought. Then I noticed the scar on the father's head; Harry Potter.

"Calandra, will you pay attention to where you're going, we need to go through the barrier now," scolded my mother. 

I turned my attention away from the family and focused on the barrier in front of me. I knew what to expect and walked lazily through to the other side. I was greeted by a great commotion of movement and noise, as parents said goodbye to their children and friends were reunited. 

"Now Calandra, I want you to behave yourself, and try no mixing with the _wrong_ people. Of course you're bound to be in Slytherin so you shouldn't have to worry about that," my father told me almost as soon as he was through the barrier. 

"Yes father," I replied, not looking him in the face. 

I gave them all stiff hugs in turn, first my mother, then my brother Amadeus, and lastly my father. That was the extent of our goodbye and I quickly made my way over to the train. Just before getting in I took one last look to the barrier, but they must have gone because in their place stood Harry Potter and his family. I looked towards his children, of which there were three. The first I saw was a young red-headed girl who couldn't have been more than about 8, she looked tearful and was clutching onto her mother's hand firmly. The next was a shy looking boy who looked like a younger version his father and I guessed he was roughly the same age as Amadeus. He stood close to his father and seemed to be overwhelmed by it all. The last looked about the same age as me, maybe a bit older. He had a mischievous grin on his face and looked to be impatient, wanting to get going. 

His eyes wandered lazily around and noticed me staring at him. His eyes fixed with mine for a few seconds before I span around and hurried onto the train, carrying my trunk and owl cage along to a free compartment. After safely stowing away my trunk and my owl Harmony's cage, I settled myself in a seat by the window and took out my secret copy of Pride and Prejudice. The reason it was secret was because my parents despised anything muggle, including their books. I'd found the book in the streets of London on the day we got my school things form Diagon Alley and had quickly stowed it away in a pocket. It wasn't a favourite of mine, but I read anything I could get my hands on. I opened it to the page I had been on before and started reading. 

As soon as I started reading however, I was interrupted by the compartment door opening. I looked up from the book to find myself staring into the big brown eyes of the eldest Potter child again. The grin he's been wearing earlier returned to his face. 

"Staring at me again eh? I really am irresistible," smirked the boy. 

"Don't flatter yourself Potter," I scoffed, resuming reading my book. 

"Pride and Prejudice? Isn't that totally boring?" he asked, settling himself down in the seat opposite me. 

"Mm, a bit, yeah," I replied vaguely, staying focused on the book. 

"Then why are you reading it," it was his turn to scoff. 

"I've got nothing else to read, that's why," I replied, glancing briefly up from the page. 

"How do you know I'm a Potter?" he asked, choosing to give up on the book and returning to my previous comment. 

"Well it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" I responded. 

"Hmm, well I bet you don't know my first name," retorted the boy. 

"No, enlighten me," I joked playfully. 

"James. My name is James Sirius Potter," he said proudly. 

"Great!" I replied sarcastically. 

"Well aren't you going to tell me your name? It's only polite," he joked back. 

"Sure. My name's Calandra Elizabeth Rose," I drawled back lazily. 

"Calandra? What sort of a name is that?" scoffed James again. 

"I don't know, ask my mother. I prefer to be called Cally though," I stated back. 

"Cally. That's a nice name," he decided. 

Just then the compartment door burst open, with two boys pushing to get in. The one in front was a gangly boy with chestnut-brown hair and a slight tan. Behind him was a shorter boy with strawberry blond hair and what could only be described as angelic features. I was sure he must have some Veela blood in him. 

"Jamie, we've been looking all over for you!" exclaimed the first boy, with a grin not too dissimilar to the one James was wearing. 

"I've told you before Fred, don't call me Jamie!" cried James indignantly. 

"You love it. Anyway I brought some of those new...oh, hi, sorry didn't see you there," said Fred, noticing me sitting there, "I'm Fred Weasley, and this is Louis Weasley, we're all cousins." 

When he said this he indicated the blond behind him, and James, still grinning in what I assumed was a Weasley trait. 

"Oh great, I've got to deal with three of you now?" I sigh dramatically. 

"Oh dear, what have you been doing to the poor girl?" chuckled Louis, talking to James as he took the seat next to mine. 

"What, me? I haven't done anything!" defended James. 

"Hey, um..." 

"Cally," I supplied. 

"Hey Cally, has my git of a cousin here been picking on you?" asked Louis kindly. He seems to be the sensible one. 

"Nah, he just fancies himself...and me," I added with a sly grin at James across the table. 

"What? No I don't!" James defended himself a bit too forcefully. 

"Well why couldn't you take your eyes off me? Why couldn't you stop talking to me when I was obviously trying to read?" I retorted, with a similar grin to the one James had been wearing earlier. 

"Aww, Jamie has his first crush," teased Fred from the seat next to him.  
>James hit his cousin on the arm and Fred pretended to be outraged. Soon they were having a play fight and didn't look to be stopping any time soon. <p>

"So Cally, what house do you want to be in?" asked Louis, obviously not wanting to get involved. 

"I don't know to be honest, I come from a long line of pureblood Slytherins, so my parents expect me to go there, but I don't really want to be in Slytherin, I'm nothing like them. Gryffindor would be nice, but my father would probably disown me. Ravenclaw sounds quite good too, I'm pretty smart..." I replied, feeling myself relax a bit in his company. 

"You seem pretty smart, well smarter than those two idiots at least. There's no doubt to where they're going," chuckled Louis, looking fondly over at his two cousins. 

"So what house do you want to be in?" I asked, genuinely interested. 

"I'm not sure really, I'd be happy wherever I went, well except Slytherin. Not that I've got anything against Slytherins, I just don't think I'd fit in there," Louis said, obviously not wanting to offend me about my family. 

"Oh, I wouldn't care if you did, I certainly have. Most of them are terribly self-centred and secretive. They think the only thing that matters is blood, it's terrible. Sometimes I think I'll marry a muggle-born just to annoy my father. He has a thing against them, I don't though, I don't care about what's in your blood. I hope whatever house I'm in you're in it too. It's nice to meet someone who doesn't judge you on your parents," I replied, smiling warmly at him. 

"I always give people a chance. You definitely don't sounds like your parents, I'm sure you won't be in Slytherin either, family doesn't negate what house you're in. Although it would be nice if I was in Gryffindor with my sister. Hopefully you will too," he replied, returning my smile. 

"You've got a big family haven't you? From what I've heard there are Weasley's everywhere," I joked. 

"Yes, it is a big family. I've got 4 Weasley uncles, and 1 Weasley aunt, she's James' mum. There's also my mum's sister, aunt Gaby, but she doesn't have any children and that side of the family isn't very big. I've got 9 cousins in total, plus my sisters Victoire and Dominique.

How about you? What size is your family?" he asked. 

"Blimey, that's a lot! My family's pretty small, there's my younger brother Amadeus. I've got two cousins on my dad's side but that's about it I think," I replied glumly, not wanting to talk about my family. 

"It must be so nice having such a small family! I see my cousins so often, they're a lot to put up with," sighed Louis. 

"Not really, it gets pretty lonely. I don't have any friends either," I replied sadly. 

"You don't have any friends? How come?" asked Louis, concerned. 

"Well there are the children of my parents friends, who I'm supposed to be friends with, but we don't exactly get along," I replied feeling even more dejected. 

"Well you've got us now, so you don't have to worry about that," grinned James butting in, obviously bored of play-fighting with Fred. 

"Aren't I lucky?" I answered sarcastically. 

Cheered up by the three cousins, I felt more and more relaxed and at home as the train ride went on. We continued to chat about Hogwarts and I learnt more and more about the boys, in turn telling them a bit about myself, but staying clear of the subject of my family, which I was thankful for. 

It wasn't long before we got to Hogwarts and left the train together. As I left the train I couldn't help thinking what luck I'd had that day. For the first time in my life I had friends, I was no longer alone.

Ok so that's chapter 1. I hope you liked it, I enjoyed writing it, I'm gonna have fun writing James and Fred, I can tell, and Cally probably :) So it ended up being quite long, hence not doing the whole train ride. That would have been SO long! I used artistic licence with the boys as we don't know much about them, I'm making them how I want them. If you feel so inclined, Reviews would be very much appreciated ;) although I'll keep posting anyway, as much for my enjoyment as anyone else's. Next chapter is being worked on, not sure when it will be up, I'll try doing it soon! Xx

Edit: I realised I left out Louis' sister Dominique when he was saying his family, I've now changed it.


	2. Chapter 2 The Sorting

Hi all! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter, thank you for the review peverellstone, you were the first :) So this is chapter 2, just to say I won't usually be this quick at updating because of exams coming up, I just had this chapter pretty much done so decided to put it up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters unfortunately. I only manipulate them to do what I want them to :)

2 The Sorting

Soon after leaving the train I heard a great booming voice calling out not far from me.

"Firs' years, over here. This way. Firs' years." 

I could see it came from a giant of a man with great bushy dark grey hair and beard. I made my way through the crowd of older students towards him. 

"That's Hagrid, he teaches Care of Magical Creatures," James yelled to me over the noise of the students. 

After a few minutes it seemed all of the first years were gathered around Hagrid and we made our way to a group of boats on the lake. I managed to get on with Louis of which I was thankful. I could see Fred and James in a boat not far from us rocking from side to side with looks of glee on their faces. 

"James, Fred, you behave or I'll be writing to your mothers," warned Hagrid, obviously seeing what they were up to as well. 

I tried unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle at the disgruntled looks on the boy's faces, earning me a scowl from both of them. 

We crossed the lake without further incident and were soon standing in the entrance to the great building. We were greeted by a kind looking man who told us to line up. I found myself stood behind Louis and in front of James. We walked into the great hall and immediately every eye was turned on us. I could tell that most of my fellow first years were terrified, but it didn't bother me. I gazed absently around the large hall at the different house tables. My eyes stopped on a boy, well more like a young man, with bright purple hair. It wasn't the hair that drew my attention to him, but the fact that he was staring straight at me with a bemused look on his face. It was only then that I realised, James was clinging into my hand. I looked around at him with a questioning look on my face and he immediately let go of my hand, blushing and looking rather embarrassed. 

I was distracted when I heard the hat shout out "HUFFLEPUFF!" I realised the sorting had started already. I paid only mild attention and soon it was James' turn to be sorted. He walked up to the stool with the hat on it, with a confident stride, but only I knew that he was actually quite nervous. 

He needn't have been because the hat had barely touched his head before it shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!" 

"Rose, Calandra," called out the kind looking professor from before. I walked steadily up to the stool and sat down, placing the hat on my head. 

"Hmm, interesting, very interesting," mused the hat. 

_What's interesting?_ I thought curiously. 

"Well, you're a Rose, I'd assumed you'd just be Slytherin like the rest of your family, but I can see you certainly wouldn't be right in Slytherin. You'd be more suited to Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor, but which one? You certainly have brains, I can see that, but there's a great deal of bravery in there too," considered the hat. 

_Well, I was hoping I could be in Gryffindor actually._ I thought, somewhat shyly. 

"So timid like a mouse, yet you could easily roar like a lion. Very well, GRYFFINDOR!"

With that I took off the hat and jumped up with a wide grin, heading to the Gryffindor table and James. I sat myself in a spot next to him and found myself opposite the guy with the purple hair.

"Well done Cally, knew you had it in you, the hat took an awfully long time about it though, what was it saying?" James whispered.

"It couldn't choose between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor," I replied briefly before turning my attention to Fred, who was just walking up to the school.

As with James, the hat barely touched his head before shouting out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Fred hurried over to the table with a grin on his face and sat down on the other side of James, silently high-fiving him.

Next came Louis and I watched closely as he sat down on the stool, placing the hat on his head. I found myself crossing my fingers when the ht didn't shout out a house straight away. It wasn't long though before the hat shouted out for the last time, "GRYFFINDOR!"

I found myself applauding frantically and had a wide grin on my face as Louis took a seat next to me.

"Well done Louis! Mother will be so pleased," said a beautiful blond girl I thought must be his sister.

"Yeah, well done Louis, I told you that you could do it," I added, patting him on the shoulder.

The beautiful older girl looked at me with a mixture of emotions on her face; surprise, suspicion and amusement. Louis must have noticed because he quickly introduced us.

"Vicky, this is my new friend Cally, we met on the train. Cally this is my sister Victoire," he supplied.

"Nice to meet you Victoire, Louis's been telling me all about you," I smiled, wanting to make a good first impression.

"Oh has he now? What lies has my dear little brother been telling you?" she grinned back.

"He was actually pretty nice about you, believe it or not, but I won't go into details, wouldn't want to embarrass him," I replied mischievously, ruffling his hair.

"Well I'll be blown, he must really like you if he was actually honest about me," she laughed back.

"Vic!" cried out Louis, blushing slightly.

Victoire just smiled in reply.

"Wow, you just passed the Vic test first time, how did you do that?" said James in awe.

"She just teased me, sure fire way to get in Vicky's good books," replied Louis, seemingly recovered from his embarrassment.

"What do you mean the 'Vic test'?" I asked confused.

"Every time Louis gets a new friend, they go through the Vic test, basically it's to see if they can deal with Vic, the annoying older sister. If they can, they stay friends with Louis. So far James and I have been the only two to pass, but that's only because we annoy the hell out of her too," replied Fred matter-o-factly.

"I can hear you, you idiot," said Victoire with and icy glare.

"See what we mean?" whispered James.

I laughed at the boy's stupidity.

"She seems nice enough to me, younger brothers are a pain in the arse anyway, believe me. But if you didn't spend your time playing pranks on her, which I have no doubt you do, and were actually nice to her, she'd probably be nice to you too," I said, amused.

The boys just looked at me as if I was mad and I gave it up.

By this time the food had appeared and we all tucked in. I helped myself to some vegetables and some Yorkshire puddings, similar to Louis's choice, while James and Fred took what looked like some of everything in their reach.

"Merlin, you were right Teddy, this food is delicious. It's even better than Mum's!" cried James to the purple haired young man.

"Don't let Ginny hear you say that, you'd be skinned alive. But you're right, it is nice," he replied.

"Oh, by the way Cally, this is Teddy, my dad's godson. Teddy this is Cally, she's our new friend, we met her on the train," said James through mouthfuls of sausage.

"Nice name, where does it come from?" asked Teddy, conversationally.

"Well it's actually Calandra, I'm named after my great-grandmother on my mother's side. It actually means lark, which is my favourite bird. I prefer to be called Cally though, Calandra's a weird name," I replied.

"Calandra's alright, at least you're not called Teddy, I don't think a year's gone by without me getting a teddy bear for my birthday or Christmas," answered Teddy exasperatedly.

"I think I got one for you last Christmas actually. I recall buying a massive fluffy pink one," grinned James mischievously.

"Yes, you did James. Very thoughtful of you," replied Teddy sarcastically.

"I wouldn't mind getting a Teddy for Christmas," I replied wistfully.

"I'll give you any I get if you like. Oh, I'm guessing James hasn't told you yet, I'm Head boy, and captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, if you ever need anything, or any help I'd be more than happy to assist you," he replied enthusiastically, and slightly proudly.

"Captain of the Quidditch team? Are you holding any tryouts?" I squealed excitedly.

"Yes, but first years aren't allowed on the team I'm afraid. I need a seeker and a beater, I'm worried there won't be anyone good enough though. I really want to win this year, it's my last year," replied Teddy, he obviously took Quidditch seriously.

"But my dad got to be seeker when he was a first year, what if one of us is the best for it? Why can't you let us try out?" asked James, obviously wanting to follow in his father's footsteps.

"Yeah, I'm a great seeker, I've got a really god eye. Plus I have the latest Spitfire," I added, also wanting to get on the team.

The mouths of everyone around me fell open at the last comment and quite a few people must have heard, because people from the nearby Hufflepuff table had turned around and were staring at me with wide eyes.

"But isn't it at your house?" questioned Louis, the first to recover from shock.

"No, my dad put a special enlargement spell on my case so the inside is bigger than the outside, it's in there," I replied.

"Clever," said Teddy, still slightly in awe.

"So, can I try out now? I mean, who would turn down the chance of having a spitfire on their side? I might even let you have a try on it," I asked slyly, sure he wouldn't be able to refuse.

"I'll go and ask Professor Longbottom now," he replied, grinning as he headed up to the staff table.

"Can I try it?" asked James and Fred at the same time.

"I'll see, you've got to be nice to me though," I answered cheekily.

Both boys grinned at each other and I could see their minds were wandering to the Quidditch pitch.

I looked over to the staff table to see Teddy deep in conversation with the kind looking Wizard from the sorting. I carried on eating and by the time Teddy came back, the puddings had appeared.

"You're allowed to try out. All of you! Tryouts will be this Saturday at 10.00am, don't be late," he beamed.

"Brilliant! I might go to the Quidditch pitch to practice tomorrow," I thought out loud.

"You do know we're not allowed on the Quidditch pitch without permission?" said Victoire.

"Yes," I replied simply

"And you know you'll get detention if you're caught?" she added.

"All the more fun," I replied, grinning at James who I could see loved this idea.

"Definitely a Gryffindor," smiled Teddy, as Victoire shook her head.

After finishing the food, Teddy and Victoire showed us up to the common room. I headed up to my dormitory and was greeted by three other first year Gryffindor girls.

I settled into my chosen bed quickly and soon fell asleep with a smile on my face, for the first time in my life excited for tomorrow.

I hope you liked the chapter. I didn't do the speech by the sorting hat because I'd have ruined it. I'm also trying to show that James isn't quite the same as his namesake, he's going to be a bit more sensitive, at times, but only a bit. The spitfire is a broom I've created, it's basically the best new broom at this time. Reviews are nice, they make me feel happy, but as I've said before, I'll still post if I get none.


	3. Chapter 3 Quidditch Tryouts

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favourite etc. It really does make me happy! I'm going to try speeding up the time a bit because so far it's been pretty slow, we're going to see the Quidditch tryouts this chapter, I wander who will get to be Seeker and Beater? So I hope you enjoy the chapter :D

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter unfortunately :(

3 Quidditch tryouts

My first week at Hogwarts seemed to fly by. I enjoyed most of my lesson, history of Magic being the only exception, due to the ghost teacher who made most of us fall asleep. Potions had probably become my favourite lesson. I loved the practical work and being excellent at following instruction, I quickly became top of the class. I also enjoyed DADA, but as it was mostly theory at first, I found it slightly boring. I much preferred doing actual magic.

I stayed true to my plan of practicing for Quidditch the next day and after we'd eaten a hasty dinner, James, Louis, Fred and I snuck out to the Quidditch pitch with my broom. Each of us has a fly on the broom, even Louis reluctantly. I could see that James and Fred had taken after their fathers when it came to flying, they were both natural in the air, Louis, whilst good, lacked the enthusiasm of his cousins and was just happy to watch the rest of us. We didn't get caught and Victoire chose not to bring up the subject.

The one thing that managed to dampen my week however came in the form of a letter from my father, I had expected him to say what he said, but that didn't stop it from hurting. He was disappointed, I was a failure in his eyes. He said I would be staying at Hogwarts over Christmas and we'd be having a serious talk when I got back in the summer. The guys were all very supportive when I mentioned it in the common room on the Friday evening and soon cheered me up.

"Hey guys," I said glumly as I walked through the portrait hole.

"Hey Cally, what's up?" asked Louis, putting a book down and walking over to me.

"I don't suppose any of you are staying here for Christmas are you?" I asked, not wanting to tell him directly.

"We weren't going to be, why?" answered James, looking over at me with concern.

"I got a letter from my father saying, amongst other things that I'm staying here for Christmas. I'm also a disappointment and a failure, plus I have to have a serious talk with him when I get back, which probably means I'm going to be thrown out," I replied, dejectedly.

"What? He can't throw you out, you're only eleven!" exclaimed Fred, standing up.

"Oh, you don't know my father, he will if he wants tom I've seen it happen before," I answered bitterly.

"Well if he does, you can come and live with me, I'm going to be getting myself a place once I've left here, I'd love to have you stay with me," shot Teddy, trying to cheer me up.

I couldn't help but grin, the older boy had helped me settle in so much that first week, he felt almost like an older brother to me already.

"Thanks for the offer Teddy, but I wouldn't want to impose myself on you," I joked, smiling at him.

"No, I'm serious. I know they shouldn't be able to throw you out but you're right, that's what happened to my grandmother. If you need a place to stay, just tell me and you're more than welcome. Also, I'm staying for Christmas, so you won't be all alone," smiled Teddy reassuringly.

"Yeah, and we can owl our parents to see if we can stay as well, can't we?" said James to his cousins.

"You don't have to do that, I wouldn't want to keep you from your families," I replied kindly.

"We want to though. We're best friends, we stick together. No-one gets left out," said Louis quietly from beside me.

We spent the remainder of the evening talking excitedly about the Quidditch tryouts the following day and I went to sleep content again.

The following morning I woke up at 8.30am. Although I knew it was a while until tryouts, I couldn't stay still, so quietly got dressed, trying not to wake my dorm mates and went downstairs to the common room with my Spitfire over my right shoulder. I almost bumped into someone as I reach the bottom of the stairs.

"Woah, sorry. Oh hey Cally, you're up early," grinned Teddy, wearing bright orange hair.

"I couldn't sleep," I answered simply.

"No, I don't blame you. Shall we go down to the Great Hall and have some breakfast before anyone else gets down? I wouldn't mind taking you up on that offer to have a try on that broom of yours," said Teddy, looking at the broom with a twinkle in his eye.

"Sure, let's go," I replied, walking out of the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall.

We were the first two down, apart from Professor Longbottom, who decided to join us at the Gryffindor table. We ate pancakes as we discussed Quidditch and the two men marvelled over my broom.

Before long, Teddy and I bade Professor Longbottom goodbye and headed out to the pitch. It was still only just after 9.00am so we had a long time before the tryouts started.

"Now I warn you, James is a good Seeker, takes after his father, so you'll need to be on the ball the whole time," warned Teddy as we reached the pitch.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty confident. You haven't seen me fly yet," I grinned, mounting my broom and kicking off.

I did two very fast circuits before flying up to one set of hoops, weaving in and out of them as fast as possible, inches away from each post as I swerved between them. I flew back towards Teddy before taking a sudden fast dive towards the ground, speeding up as I went. I pulled up from the dive mere feet from the ground, before making my way steadily back to Teddy.

The look on his face was priceless, somewhere between shock, worry and excitement.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"Bloody hell, you're good! I've never seen someone pull off the Wronski feint as well as that before, except perhaps James' father Harry, but he's a fully grown man," said Teddy with a look of incredulity on his face.

Teddy then had a go on the broom and I could see why he was Captain of the Quidditch team. He flew through the air o easily and was so in control, I could see he would make a brilliant Quidditch player.

He swapped back onto his own broom, a Firebolt, bought for him by his Godfather for his seventeenth birthday. Teddy got the balls out and we ha d a mess around with the Quaffles, taking it in turns to play as Chaser and Keeper. We then got the Bludgers out and hit one between us. This was Teddy's forte, he had to go easy on me because of the power in his muscled. We didn't get the snitch out just in case we lost it but soon people started coming down so we had to stop anyway. The first people down were the rest of the team.

"Hi guys, I'm glad you could all make it. This is Cally, she's a friend of mine and she'll be trying out for Seeker. Cally, meet the rest of my team, this is Toby Goodridge, he's the Keeper, this is Harvey Pendarvis, he's a chaser, this is Imogen Wood, also a Chaser and you've already met Vicky, she's the final Chaser," said Teddy, introducing us.

Victoire gave me an encouraging look while the others smiled at me in a way that told me they thought I was too young to be Seeker.

Teddy must have noticed this too. "She may only be a first year, but you haven't seen her fly yet, plus she has a Spitfire," added Teddy with a grin.

The rest of his teams eyes widened, taking in my broom and I could see a flash of jealousy cross the Keeper's face, but only for a second.

"Cally, why didn't you wait for us?" cried James indignantly, storming onto the pitch with Fred and Louis running after him.

"I couldn't sleep, so Teddy and I went down to have breakfast. Then we came out and had a fly. I would've been waiting for about an hour," I replied, shaking my head.

It was soon 10.00am and there was a large amount of pupils trying out. The older students were looking at us with amused looks on their faces, and I couldn't wait to show them up.

"Right, first I want you all to warm up, so I'd like you to get into four groups, two lots of hopeful Seekers, and two of Beaters, then I just want you to fly around the pitch at a steady pace, no showing off," Teddy directed the last comment in my direction with a wink.

James and I stuck together as Fred joined the younger group of Beaters and Louis went up to the stands to watch. James and I ended up in a group of mostly first, second and third years.

When Teddy gave the order to fly, James and I struck off at the same time, immediately heading to the front of the group. I could tell that I wasn't the only one fighting the urge to speed up, but I managed to stay at a steady speed and looked lazily around the pitch.

Teddy had also risen into the sky and started speaking again. "Now I'm looking to see how natural you are on a broom, so if I think you're good enough I will approach and you can return to the ground."

He looked intently at everyone and after a minute or so, flew over to a tall guy from fifth year who was trying out for Beater. I saw him look over at me and James with a wink, he obviously didn't want to show favourites. Another few people returned to the ground before her flew over to me and James.

"I already knew you two could fly, but I didn't want to look like I was favouring you," whispered Teddy so only James and I could hear.

James and I returned to the ground with grins on our faces and were soon joined by Fred. By the time Teddy returned to the ground, there were eight hopefuls for the position of Beater and six for Seeker. James, Fred and I were the only first years selected. The rest of the hopefuls left from the pitch disappointed.

"Now, what we're going to do is myself, Toby here, our Keeper and Harvey, one of the Chasers are going to test the Beaters, and my other Chasers, Imogen and Victoire will test the Seekers. For the Beater it's simple, we'll just be seeing how you fly with the bat and seeing if you can hit the Bludgers hard enough and in the right direction. Seekers, I'm going to let the snitch out, then two of you will be allowed to Seek at the same time for it, then Victoire and Imogen will decide which of you is best for the job," Teddy finished, letting the snitch out and bringing out the two Bludgers and Quaffle.

I got paired with a sixth year called Emily Fawcett, who seemed nice enough, but talked to me a little patronisingly. James got paired with a third year called Percival Douglas and there was also a second and fourth year paired together. James and the third year were the first to have a go. Both were good flyers, but James' eye was sharper and he was faster, so caught the Snitch relatively quickly. Next was the second and fourth year, again both were good flyers, but it was obvious that James was better. The fourth year ended up catching the snitch. Next was my turn, I took off into the sky once Victoire told us to and started looking round for the little winged ball. I flew down to one end, catching sight of Fred and giving him a grin as he hit a Bludger at the Chaser, Harvey. He grinned back at me, having hit it on target and almost hitting the fourth year off his broom. I headed back towards the other end and that's when I spotted it, it was hovering just behind the other girl and she hadn't noticed it yet. I made a split-second decision and started heading towards the bottom of the posts at the other end. Emily caught sight of me and started to speed up to catch up with me, several metres from the ground, I pulled up and turned back after the snitch. I reached it easily and closed my fingers around the Golden Snitch, a grin on my face. Emily looked rather disgruntled as we returned to where the other were standing and I handed the snitch back over to Victoire.

Teddy came back down to the ground with the others as well and the team separated from us to discuss. Several minutes passed before they turned back towards us, Teddy had a look of conflict on his face, but I saw Victoire squeeze his hand, encouragingly.

"Well, we've come to a decision, it hasn't been easy I can tell you, you were all very good. I shall be offering the position of Beater to Fred Weasley, congratulation Fred, I think we're going to work really well together," Teddy grinned, patting the younger boy on the shoulder. Fred looked ecstatic and I grinned at him before turning to look back at Teddy.

"The position of Seeker was even harder for us to decided on, but I've decided to offer the position to Cally, that Wronski feint of yours really is brilliant," smiled Teddy, then looked apologetically at James.

"I'm very sorry to those of you who didn't get on the team, I just want to say thank you for trying and it would be lovely to see you supporting us at our games," Teddy said, addressing the rest of them.

The rest of them left the pitch, leaving me, James, Fred, Teddy, Victoire and we were also joined by Louis. I looked uneasily at James, knowing how much he'd wanted my position.

"Sorry James..." my voice trailed off as I looked down at the grass.

"No, it's alright, the best person got the position, you really were amazing. Congratulations," smiled James, looking only slightly disappointed.

"I'm really sorry James, I know how much it meant to you, but that Wronski feint really was impressive, maybe you could tryout next year to be Beater with Fred," suggested Teddy.

James' face lifted slightly as he thought about that idea. "Actually that's not a bad idea, I bet I'd have fun," James grinned mischievously at Fred.

"Hey, congrats both of you, you really showed that sixth year Cally," Louis said, smiling at me.

The six of us turned and walked off the pitch together, chatting about the tryouts and all the other hopefuls, all of us smiling, happy.

Well that's the chapter, it was a bit longer than usual but I felt it would be cheating if I went any shorter than that, so there you go. I don't know whether any of you have noticed but I'm rather fond of Teddy. This may be his last year at Hogwarts, but he's going to be in it the whole way through, I hope you like him as much as I do. I'm also rather fond of Louis, he's the sweet, sensible, smart guy that all of us girls want to meet ;) Anyway I hope you liked it. Reviews are very much appreciated, also suggestions, feedback would really be lovely, I'm not really sure what people think of it, is it going to slow? Is it too boring? Should I move on a bit and have a bit more excitement?


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